WP: A Place in Between (Obama's mixed parentage as a bridge to change)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401878.html

A Place in Between

In a Nation Where Race Has Long Carried Polarizing Implications, the Mixed Parentage Of Barack Obama Opens a Bridge to Changes in Our Language -- and Thinking

By Kevin Merida
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 25, 2008; Page A23

Will Jawando sat on a Capitol Hill park bench admiring an unseasonably breezy August afternoon as he told his story of being half black and half white, "kind of a double outsider" in a nation still struggling with difference.

His story could easily be titled "Barack and Me," for Jawando, who grew up in Montgomery County, also is the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black African father (his from Nigeria). Oh, and he just happened to marry a woman named Michele.

Now a legislative assistant to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jawando, 26, sees in Obama a politician who not only shares his personal story but speaks to the sensibilities of his generation. "Barack's whole message is: 'I can stand in everyone's shoes.' "

Obama's unique biography has been central both to his success as a presidential contender and to his opponents' efforts to portray him as strange, elitist, untrustworthy. Over these next four days, as Democrats host their national convention in Denver, that biography will be on display for Americans to get a closer look.

It is commonly said and written that Obama would become the first black president, not the first biracial president. In part, that is because the nation's history of racism and inequality continues to make racial milestones so significant, and none more significant than winning the presidency. One could argue that Obama is less the product of the Kenyan father who abandoned him at age 2 and more a reflection of his white mother, who traveled the world as an anthropologist, raising her son in Hawaii and Indonesia with help from Barack's white grandparents.

Those who still wonder about him, says Adam Bradley, an assistant professor of literature at Claremont-McKenna College in California, may be reflecting their inability to understand what he represents, "a chameleon of colors and cultures" who mirrors the larger demographic shifts that are transforming America.

-snip-

Much more at the link -- 3-page article.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Excellent! Video accompanies the story as well.

I'm in that place in between as well.

[highplainsdem]

2. Thanks, FrenchieCat! I forgot to mention the video.